Hungerford Town in good shape ahead of season opener
Hungerford Town Football Club are finalising their preparations, as the start of the Southern League season approaches.
It all kicks off with a trip to Chertsey next Saturday, and the Crusaders have been in fine pre-season form in recent weeks.
They hosted Football League side Cheltenham Town last Tuesday, the second professional side to visit Bulpit Lane this Summer after Swindon Town made the trip south.
It was returning striker James Harding who would add to his growing pre-season goal tally, finishing from close range to put Hungerford one up in the first half.
The 27-year-old has proven a useful rotation option in tandem with the talismanic Conor McDonagh, having last played for the club in the National League South during the Covid years.
Town’s lead was doubled before half-time, as Player of the Season Joe Shepherd fired into the roof of the net.
Early in the second-half, it was right-back Jack Stanley who made it three, slipping in behind the Cheltenham backline to finish.
Saturday would see a different kind of test, as last year’s champions Chesham came to visit.
They’d go two goals up within 23 minutes, showing the quality which got them promoted last term.
Jack Stanley would score again with a far-post header, but this proved to be little more than a consolation, as the visitors scored again after half-time to run out 3-1 victors.
Hoping for a more positive result, Hungerford made the short trip to face Thatcham Town at the Mettal Stadium in a local derby.
A homecoming for manager Danny Robinson, as well as many of his players, and a true test of fitness as the temperature remained in the high twenties at the kick-off.
It was new signing Alefe Santos who bagged his first goal of pre-season to put Robinson’s side one up early on, with the São Paulo born star lobbing the keeper with a classy finish.
Thatcham would equalise with a penalty less than ten minutes later and that’s how it would finish.
A 1-1 draw in the heat proved a tough physical challenge in preparation for a hard-fought season.
The Crusaders travel to Stratford Town this Saturday in their final friendly, before attention turns to the curtain raiser a week later.
